This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, May 7
Preludes livestreamed production, by Dave Malloy, directed by directed by Alex Sutton, featuring Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Steven Serlin, begins streaming at London’s Southwark Playhouse.
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Betsy Wolfe, begins streaming at 8 PM ET here.
“Ride the Cyclone: World Premiere Cast Recording,” by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell, featuring Lillian Castillo, Chaz Duffy, Scott Redmond, Jacob Richmond, Emily Rohm, Tiffany Tatreau, Kholby Wardell, and Brooke Maxwell, with Sarah Carlé, Richard Moody, Diane Pancel, Anne Schaefer, Aaron Scoones, and Kholby Wardell, released here.
Laura Bell Bundy‘s new album, “Women of Tomorrow,” released on MP3 here.
The Jam: Only Child, by Daniel J. Watts, directed by Lianeana Blain-Cruz, featuring Daniel J. Watts and DJ Duggz, concludes on-demand streaming at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Saturday, May 8
Marilyn Maye: Broadway, the Maye Way concert, begins streaming at 54 Below.
The Normal Heart benefit presentation, by Larry Kramer, directed by Paris Barclay, featuring Jeremy Pope, Laverne Cox, Sterling K. Brown, Jake Borelli, Vincent Rodriguez III, Guillermo Díaz, Ryan O’Connell, Daniel Newman, Jay Hayden, and Danielle Savre, streams at 5 PM PT here.
Uncle Vanya (recorded Aug. 2020 at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre), directed by Ian Rickson, featuring Toby Jones (Uncle Vanya), Richard Armitage (Astrov), Rosalind Eleazar (Yelena), Aimee Lou Wood (Sonya), Anna Calder Marshall (Nana), Dearbhla Molloy (Mariya), Roger Allam (Serebryakov), and Peter Wight (Telegin), airs at 8 PM on PBS (check local listings).
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Betsy Wolfe, streams at 2 PM ET here.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Bernadette Peters, Tariq Trotter, Billy Magnussen, Nick Robinson, Mars Rucker, and Douglas Otero, streams here.
Preludes livestreamed production, by Dave Malloy, directed by directed by Alex Sutton, featuring Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Steven Serlin, concludes streaming at London’s Southwark Playhouse.
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Betsy Wolfe, concludes streaming at 8 PM ET here.
Sunday, May 9
Christiane Noll: Coming Alive Again concert, directed by Rob Ruggiero, begins streaming on demand at Goodspeed Musicals.
Andrea Marcovicci: Spring Song benefit concert, with music direction by Brad Ellis, begins FREE streaming at 7 PM ET here (and available thru May 16).
Stars in the House, an Anastasia reunion, with special guests TBA, streams at 8 PM ET here.
The Secret Garden: Workshop and Livestream Experience, by Marsha Norman & Lucy Simon, directed & choreographed by Warren Carlyle, featuring Clifton Duncan (Archibald), Drew Gehling (Neville Craven), Sierra Boggess (Lily), Amber Iman (Martha), Adam Chandler-Berat (Dickon), Brooklyn Shuck (Mary), Cameron Mann (Colin), Matt Doyle (Albert), Sally Ann Triplett (Medlock), Jim Norton (Ben), Anoop Desai (Fakir), and Kuhoo Verma (Ayah), concludes streaming on Broadway on Demand.
Four American Women performing David Mamet monologues, featuring Rebecca Pidgeon, Heidi Sulzman, and Yolanda Ross, concludes streaming a Broadway on Demand.
Call Me Elizabeth, written by & starring Kayla Boye, directed by Erin Kraft, concludes streaming on demand at Chicago’s Porchlight Theatre.
David Burnham benefit concert concludes streaming at Musical Theatre West.
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Video: Stars in the House, offering a Celebrating Moms Game Night, with special guests Camryn Manheim, Milo Manheim, Colin Donnell, and Patti Murin. (1:43:21)
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As of today, here’s the schedule of shows opening on Broadway:
Chicago (resumes performances Sept. 14) at the Ambassador Theatre.
Six (previews Sept. 17 and opens Oct. 3) at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Click here for current pre-sale.
Ain’t Too Proud (re-opens Oct. 16) at the Imperial Theatre.
Diana (Previews Dec. 1, opens Dec. 16) at the Longacre Theatre.
Jagged Little Pill (re-opens Oct. 21) at the Broadhurst Theatre.
The Phantom of the Opera (re-opens Oct. 22) at the Majestic Theatre.
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Shows not returning:
* Mean Girls
* Hangman
* Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
* A Soldier’s Play
* Beetlejuice
* The Inheritance.
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Vacant theatres:
* Barrymore Theatre (former home of The Inheritance)
* Booth Theatre (former home of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
* Cort Theatre (planned renovations)
* Lyceum Theatre (former home of Sing Street)
* Nederlander Theatre (former home of The Lehman Trilogy)
* Palace Theatre (planned renovations)
* St. James Theatre (former home of Frozen)
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Spring Celebration will stream Sat. June 5 at 7:30 PM ET at Cambridge’s A.R.T.
Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel, Sergio Trujillo, Jack Noseworthy, and more TBA.
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Cleveland Playhouse presents its New Ground Festival will stream Sat. May 15, offering excerpts of plays by five groundbreaking playwrights.
Crooked River Burning, by George Brant, which includes stories about Alan Freed, Dorothy Fuldheim, and Carl Stokes. The excerpts will be directed by Laura Kepley, and feature Bjorn DuPaty, Phyllis Kay, and Rick D. Wasserman.
I’m Back Now, by Charly Evon Simpson. The play is inspired by Clevelander Sara Lucy Bagby, the last person in the United Stages prosecuted under the Fugitive Slave Act. While Bagby’s final resting play is in Cleveland’s historic Woodland Cemetery, Charly reflects on this fascinating saga in African American history through a walking tour of Greenwood Cemetery near her Brooklyn, NY home.
The Ghost Tour, by Jessica Dickey, who will perform an except from her play, inspired in part by the Variety Theatre on Lorain Avenue.
Lake Erie Oubliette, by Chelsea Marcantel, who will present her research on spiritualism and its ties to Cleveland, while guest artist Kate Eastman give Chelsea a three-card tarot reading.
Liébling, by Vichet Chum, directed by Jesca Prudencio. Chum will share two excerpts from the play. We catch up with protagonist Sovanna in Cleveland as he encounters the ghost of his partner’s Cambodian/German/Hungarian grandmother, and later we see Sovanna as he mentors a Gen-Z visual artist. Featuring Francesca Fernandez McKenzie and Jon Norman Schneider.
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First Time in Forever, in support of Forming Families Foundation and The Center, Las Vegas, will stream Sat. June 5 at 7 PM PT here.
Jessica Vosk, Kyle Dean Massey, and Taylor Frey.
The performers will recount first time stories of love, heartbreak, embarrassment, and success, as they navigate their thirties, beating the odds and overcoming challenges. A concert about bravery, about progress, about blurring the lines between business and Broadway. It’s a show celebrating different paths in life, and how behind every success story there’s a very vulnerable first timer.
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The new 10-episode dramedy series, “Hello Tomorrow!” will premiere on Apple (date TBA).
Billy Crudup and more TBA.
The half-hour series is set in a retro-future world and centers around a group of traveling salesmen hawking lunar timeshares. Crudup stars as Jack, a salesman of great talent and ambition, whose unshakeable faith in a brighter tomorrow inspires his co-workers, revitalizes his desperate customers, but threatens to leave him dangerously lost in the very dream that sustains him.
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Off-Broadway’s 52nd Street Project is shining a spotlight on the creative voices of their young songwriters with its virtual gala, which continues through May 16, hosted by Nancy Giles.
Allie Bonino, Jessica Carvo, Greg Hildreth, Belen Moyano, Ronald Peet, Jon-Michael Reese, Emily Skeggs, Skyler Volpe, Natalie Walker, and more.
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A new filmed version of Maltby & Shire’s Closer Than Ever is in the works, with streaming set to begin in September (dates TBA) exclusively on BroadwayHD., directed & choreographed by Stacey Haynes, and co-directed by Maltby Jr.
Lee Mead, Kerry Ellis, Grace Mouat, and Dalton Harris.
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Broadway for Every Breath will livestream Tues. May 11 at 8 PM ET here, in support of Give India a nonprofit providing support of oxygen tanks and other critical COVID needs.
Jessie Mueller, Denee Benton, Ana Villafañe, Erika Henningsen, Nik Walker, Samantha Massell, Lindsay Heather Pearce, Sam Gravitte, Ryan Vasquez, Brittain Ashford, Kennedy Caughell, and Shoba Narayan.
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Video: Jason Graae sings “Tulip Time in Sing-Sing,” by Jerome Kern & P.G. Wodehouse.
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The Miscast Benefit has announced additional performers, which will stream Sun. May 16 at 8 PM ET here (and available through May 20), directed & music directed by Will Van Dyke.
Previously announced: Annaleigh Ashford, Idina Menzel, Patrick Wilson, Robin de Jesús, Renée Elise Goldsberry, LaChanze, Kelli O’Hara, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Porter, Melissa barrera, Leslie Grace, Jai’Len Josey, and Kelly Marie Tran
Newly announced: Gavin Creel and Aaron Tveit.
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has announced a reading of Nora Carroll’s Lot 110, to stream May 29 at 7 PM CT, directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Casting TBA.
Late one autumn evening, Lydia and Karma journey to their sister’s gravesite to perform a ritual: of healing, of remembrance, of connection. Today is particularly special because Lydia and Karma are able to share the intimacy of their grief without the performance of wellness. Kia’s been gone almost two years, but her sisters still need some answers about her life on earth and beyond in the veil in this funny, surprising, and moving new play.
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An all-Asian American abridged version of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder will stream July 15 here, directed by Alan Muraoka, with music direction by Steven Cuevas.
Cindey Cheung, Karl Josef Co, Ali Ewoldt, Diane Phelan, and Thom Sesma.
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A reading of Ben Jonson’s Sejanus, His Fall, adapted & directed by Nathan Winkelstein, will stream Mon. May 17 at 7:30 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theatre.
Shirine Babb, Grantham Coleman, Keith David, Manoel Felciano, Denis O’Hare, Matthew Rauch, Liv Rooth, Stephen Spinella, Emily Swallow, Raphael Nash Thompson, Tamara Tunie, and James Udom.
Tiberius is the Emperor or Rome. Sejanus is his right-hand man. But – in a society where books are burnt, “knowledge is made a capital offense,” and free men have become “the prey of greedy vultures and spies” – factions are forming behind each of these charismatic leaders.
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Nick Payne’s Constellations has announced 4 new casts that will perform June 18 – Sept. 12 at the Vaudeville Theatre, directed by Michael Longhurst.
June 18 – Aug. 1: Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah
June 23 – July 24: Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker
July 30 – Sept. 11: Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey
Aug. 6 – Sept. 12: Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd
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Sony’s re-telling of “Cinderella” is skipping the planned theatrical debut, and will instead premiere on Amazon Prime later this year (date TBA). The film is written & directed by Kay Cannon.
Camila Cabello (Cinderella), Billy Porter (the Fab G, a genderless fairy godparent), Idina Menzel (Vivian, Cinderella’s stepmother), Nicholas Galitzine (Prince Robert), Pierce Brosnan (King Rowan), Minnie Driver (Queen Beatrice), and Maddie Baillio & Charlotte Spencer (Stepsisters).